THE HAkUOUk OF A P1KF. 



reaches is by drawing the bait along the sides next to 

 you, except you can search (he breadth of it, and 

 throw over to the farther side ; but that is but dull and 

 slow sport, it will take a deal of time to troll the 

 length of a furlong. If your river consists of pits, 

 which is the quickest and most delightful way of troll- 

 ing, you must have a special regard to the top ami 

 bottom of the pit. A pike may be taken sometimes in 

 the middle, but his chief seat and habitation is at the 

 bottom of the pit ; and this I have often observed, that 

 ^vhere one Pike hath been taken at the mouth, another 

 hath been found at the foot, or bottom of the pit. 



These are the ordinary places ; yet according to the 

 variety of weather and seaspns of the year, a Pike will 

 alter aud change his dwelling. In the winter he 

 usually couches very nigh the ground, and gets into 

 the deepest and obscurest places ; about the latter end 

 of February, or the beginning of March, he begins to 

 be weary of his melancholy repose, and to raise himself 

 a little from the bottom, and is more active in seeking 

 his food : at the latter end of March, or sometime* 

 the middle, he shoots in the scours, and there leaves 

 the spawn to multiply according to its kind : in April 

 and May, he still gets higher, and advances himself into 

 the shallows ; and if unmolested there he will so con- 

 tinue most part of the summer ; in September, he be- 

 gins to retreat again, and removes himself from his har- 

 bour to visit his winter quarters, which will be much 

 the same as before, if no floods disorder him. This is 

 his yearly course, to change according to heat or cold, 

 so that a Pike, like a person of quality, J \ath both a 

 winter and a summer. house. 



As to his daily transaction, he thus disposes of him- 

 self: in a hot gleamy day, he gets to the surface of the 

 water, as if he had a desire to exchange his element to 

 enjoy the comfortable influence of the airy region : ho 

 then scorns to be tempted with a bait, and can live all 

 day with a little more nourishment than the motes in 

 the sun ; for you can no sooner offer him the kindness 

 of a deceitful bait ? but he is gone as swift as lightning 



